


My Older Brother: Lessons from Lu Ten

by dickard23



Series: Family [9]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Children, Family Drama, Fire Nation Royal Family, Friendship, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-02-25 19:17:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2633171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dickard23/pseuds/dickard23
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Azula always admired Lu Ten like an older brother. A part of her died when he did, but he found a way to make it up to her. Older brothers always look out for their little sisters. A companion piece to The Princess and the Dragon and to The Snitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Art of Firebending

The Art of Firebending

**June 89AG**

Azula was about to get her first firebending lesson. She left her room, quickly moving down the maze of corridors before anyone could spot her.

She found herself in Lu Ten’s courtyard. It was small, but it had a privacy fence covered in ivy, shielding it from the outside’s view.

Prince Ozai had no such courtyard, and Crown Prince Iroh had a nice pavilion instead.

Lu Ten easily had the third best bedroom in the palace, only after his father and the Fire Lord.

“Ready?” Lu Ten asked. He had a soft voice. People who heard it would probably not match it to the tall, well built man who possessed it. He just has his final growth spurt the year before and he towered over his father, not as tall as his grandfather but in the neighborhood. He kept his hair in a traditional topknot and trained shirtless. Ever firebending scar he had ever earned was visible. They gave him character.

“Yes Sensei Lu Ten,” Azula bowed. She was ready to learn the ways of the flame.

He started with a visual demonstration, doing an advanced kata that Azula would learn for some time.

“Fire is not like any other element. You have to derive it from within and how you get to it matters. It’s easy to use anger, but once you are angry, it’s hard to focus. It’s better to use positive energy, even if its harder to do because if you are in the right mindset, you will be able to firebend a lot better.

You always have to be mindful of fire’ no matter how it is you come across it. Lu Ten took out a scroll. “What do you think would happen with this scroll if I left it outside and a gust of wind took it?”

“It would move, but it would be fine.”

“What if it got caught in a cyclone?”

“It would be destroyed.”

“You could say the same thing for water and earth. Each element has a benign use that could be ignored and a dangerous one that you must pay attention to. Fire on the other hand, although it can be benevolent, must always be watched.

No matter why a fire is started, it will consume as far as it can until it is put out. As soon as it touches the scroll, the scroll is ruined no matter what the circumstance. If you don’t stay mindful of what fire can do, it will burn you and whatever is around you.

This is why we will start with the movements. The flame will come later. If you don't stay in control while you move, then you lose everything.”

They spent the rest of the time working on her first kata.

They would meet for 30 minutes every day. He didn’t want to overwork her. She hadn’t even turned four yet, and she could only be gone for so long before people would start to wonder where she had gone.


	2. The Art of Dim Sum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lu Ten and Azula have dim sum and conversation.

**June 90AG**

Like his father and his grandfather Lu Ten enjoyed having dim sum and tea in the afternoons. Azulon liked using the time to enjoy some peace and quiet. Iroh preferred company, but he would talk your ear off. Lu Ten used dim sum as a chance to learn about other people.

He would have dim sum with anyone he found interesting, former classmates or a girl he met in a bookstore. He had even invited the sous chef to dim sum on his day off because he had learned the man had travelled all over the world, and Lu Ten wanted to hear about it.

Today, he had a special guest indeed, his cousin Azula. She made her way to his courtyard, but instead of their daily lesson, they would be having dim sum.

* * *

 

Azula struggled with knowing what to wear. This was hardly afternoon tea so she didn’t need a poofy dress, but she wasn’t training either, so wearing causal clothes seemed inappropriate. Finally, she settled on the simplest dress she could find, a yellow sundress.

The young firebender made her way into the courtyard, and the cart of dim sum was just arriving. She took the seat opposite her cousin, and the server offered taro puffs, tomato carrot cakes, and cow pig steam buns.

“I love taro puffs,” Azula told him. It was a rare treat to get dim sum. Her grandfather preferred to eat it alone. If she caught him at just the right time, and just the right mood, however, she could get him to share.

“Me too. The crunchy outside and the meaty inside, oh it’s marvelous.”

Azula tried the tea and twisted her face. “This is terrible.”

“I don’t know why, but that’s the tea that comes with dim sum. I think it’s for digestion and not flavor.”

Azula put that to the side and went back to her taro puffs. “So how did you finagle this room?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s better than my father’s room, and he would have picked before you were born.”

“Your father’s room is bigger. He probably thought it was more suitable for two people to live in it.”

“True, but I would have told my wife to get her own room and kept the courtyard.”

Lu Ten laughed. “Well if I find a wife, I don’t think she’ll let me have that option.”

“Then can I have your room?”

“If she disapproves of this one, sure.”

* * *

 

The two chatted about palace affairs. Lu Ten was surprised at how much Azula knew of the inter-palace politics. Azulon favored Iroh and he didn’t like Ozai. Ozai didn’t like Iroh, likely due to jealousy.

“The pattern continues,” Azula told her cousin. “The Fire Lord favors your father which makes my father mad, and my father favors me which makes my brother mad. The ones who are the most alike do not get along.”

“How did you figure this all out?”

“I’m little. People often talk and forget I’m in the room.”

Lu Ten realized Azula was the fly on the wall that secretly knew everything, and she wasn’t even five yet, remarkable.


	3. The Art of Stealing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stealing's only fun when it's with Lu Ten

**October 90AG**

Lu Ten and Azula just came inside from training.

“I’m so hungry,” she told him as her stomach rumbled.

“Me too.”

They headed for the kitchens, hoping to find some fruit or something to snack on when they found a dim sum cart instead.

“Do you see anyone coming?” Lu Ten questioned.

Azula checked the halls. “No.”

Lu Ten grabbed the cart and quickly pushed it down to his room. Azula followed him.

They quickly began to munch on the treats.

“Won’t someone be missing this cart?” Azula questioned, after she ate the taro puffs.

“We’ll put the cart back,” Lu Ten told her. He realized this was his father’s cart as the Fire Lord had specially marked carts. Lu Ten was hungry, and his father was probably reading. He wouldn’t notice if it took ten more minutes than usual.

“This is our little secret,” Lu Ten told her.

Azula nodded. Secrets were cool.

Once they finished the treats, they had to put the cart somewhere. They were on their way to the kitchen when they heard someone.

They stashed the cart outside of Prince Ozai’s room and bolted.

Naturally, the servant assumed Ozai had stolen Iroh’s dim sum cart.

“Jerk!” The servant muttered as he brought the cart back to the kitchen.

The cousins snickered as they listened from another hallway.

“I can’t believe that was so easy,” Azula commented.

“This never happened,” Lu Ten told her.

* * *

A week later, Azula was hungry. Her mother did not want her eating between meals since she might get too fat.

Zuko, on the other hand, could eat as much as she wanted.

The princess went into the kitchen and saw a plate of food with a cover on it. She lifted the cover to see a toastie. She swiped it and snuck out of the kitchen.

The servant brought the tray to Prince Zuko only to present an empty plate.

“Where’s my toastie?” Zuko complained.

The servant was shocked. “It was right there.”

The chef had to make another one. He assumed the servant ate it, and the servant assumed that the chef had eaten it. Meanwhile, Azula was enjoying the tasty sandwich in her bedroom.

* * *

** December 90AG **

Two months after their first heist, Lu Ten and Azula were on the prowl, looking for food.

They found another dim sum cart and swiped it. Half way to Lu Ten’s room, however, they heard Ozai coming this way.

They had to make a left at the last minute.

“To the Fire Lord!” Azula declared.

They showed up to his chamber and knocked on the door.

The sovereign had been reading reports. “Who’s at my door?”

He opened it to find his two favorite grandchildren with a cart of dim sum.

“Oh how nice.” He invited them in, and they shared the treats.

“Why is the service so slow?” Iroh wondered as they made him a new cart.

* * *

Over the years they pinched steaks, dim sum carts, trays of food meant for afternoon tea, and anything else they could get their hands on.

No matter how close the call, they would never give up or snitch on the on the other, and they had some close calls in their day.

Their reign of food terror in the palace lasted three and a half years, until Lu Ten left for the siege.

**October 95AG**

Lu Ten has been dead for four months. Azula thought about moving into his room and making it the Crown Princess room, but it felt wrong. She wanted him to move across the hall to a bigger room, not to leave her alone in the palace. Some nights she would sit in his courtyard and remember happier times, when he first taught her to firebend and when they would steal dim sum carts. She realized suddenly that she’d never be able to swipe with him again. Food pinching lost its appeal.


	4. The Art of Fighting

** 94AG **

The Fire Nation celebrated fighting contests for hundreds of years. Agni Kais were for honor, but originally, the honor was being the more skilled bender. There was no maiming involved.

Over time, however, agni kais became a show of power. They would fight to first burn or in extreme cases, to the death. There was something terrifying and exciting about seeing two people hell-bent on destroying the other.

The Fire Nation people had been conditioned to fuel themselves on rage. They had to get it out somehow before they exploded like a volcano.

Lu Ten wondered if it was some kind of disturbing catharsis, if people were less likely to fight each other if they could “get off” by watching others fight, if the two in the ring were sacrificing themselves for society’s insatiable bloodlust.

“Fighters who fuel themselves with rage will destroy themselves,” Lu Ten told his cousin. “They may destroy some opponents first but their own destruction is inevitable.”

Azula nodded.

They had their sparring lesson. Lu Ten hoped that she would use these moves sparingly, but given who her father was, she would likely be put to a real test. He hoped that she would remember what he taught her and would hold onto her positivity, no matter what else Ozai tried to show her.

“Can we go to a gladiator fight?” she asked her cousin. “Everyone talks about them.”

They are often talked about. People bet money, lots of money on these fights. For some, the betting was a career in itself.

“Yes, on one condition.”

“What is it?”

“You have to remember that fighting until you destroy yourself is never the right answer. You may be thrust into battles you don’t want to be in, and forced to fight your way out, but you have to remember who you are.”

Azula nodded. She would forget this lesson, but it would come back to her, eventually.

Lu Ten took her to the next fight and told everyone else he was taking her to the war museum.

* * *

October 100AG

Azula didn’t remember the lesson until Aang mended her spirit. She had forgotten who she was. She molded herself to become Ozai’s weapon, so she could survive his brutal treatment.

She didn’t think it was wrong to join the war effort. It had hardly been her choice, but she had lost herself along the way. She forced Ty Lee to join her. She shot the boy who would eventually save her in the back. She almost killed her best friend in a fit of rage.

She had forgotten everything Lu Ten had taught her about being true to herself and staying in control, even when times became hard. She lost control, not of her bending, which had remained excellent, even in her fits of insanity, but of her own spirit.

Roku appeared in her cell. “You have a lot on your mind.”

“Do you think Mai and Ty Lee would come visit me?”

“I can ask.”

“Thank you.”


End file.
